Lloyd Houlden Fellowship

11th Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship

The Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) is pleased to announce that the 11thAnnual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship has been awarded to Chris Nyberg.

Mr. Nyberg is currently an associate in the restructuring and insolvency group at the Calgary office of Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP.

His paper will review the topic of abandonment rights in insolvency proceedings and focus on the need to formally recognize the economic assessment model of abandonment rights in Canada. While issues regarding abandonment rights have become particularly prevalent in Western Canada with the surge of insolvent oil and gas companies, they can arise in respect of nearly all types of property and may have a significant effect on the administration of an insolvent debtor's estate. As a result, the topic has broad practical significance to both creditors and court officers in Canada.

The Fellowship is named after the late Justice of the Court of Appeal of Ontario who had a long and distinguished career both as a practicing jurist and author specializing in insolvency. CAIRP’s Fellowship Award provides for up to $20,000 to fund research into insolvency-related topics, consisting either of original analysis of innovative ways to improve the insolvency system, or historical analysis of particular features of the system. Authors from any part of the insolvency community – practicing Licensed Insolvency Trustees and lawyers, as well as academics and students – are eligible to apply.

Tenth Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship

The Canadian Association of Insolvency and Restructuring Professionals (CAIRP) is pleased to announce that the 10th Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship has been awarded to Isabel Langlois.

Ms. Langlois is an associate at the Calgary office of Norton Rose Fulbright Canada LLP. She practices primarily in the areas of commercial and corporate litigation and insolvency law. She was called to the Bar in the Province of Alberta in 2015. Ms. Langlois holds a Master of Laws from the University of Toronto, a Bachelor of Laws (Hons.) from the University of Leicester in the United Kingdom, and a Bachelor of Arts from Memorial University.

Ms. Langlois’ research paper will provide an overview of the origin of common law trusts, outline the historical evolution of statutory trusts, and identify current inconsistencies and issues in the jurisprudence. Her research will address the following question: Can statutory trusts and deemed trusts be considered common law trusts? This review of the basic principles of common law trusts and statutory trusts will provide insolvency professionals with a better understanding of the trust mechanism and how this mechanism interacts with the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act in bankruptcy proceedings.

The Lloyd Houlden Fellowship is administered by a distinguished Advisory Council established by CAIRP, the members of which are:

The $20,000 Fellowship is named after the late Hon. Lloyd Houlden, Q.C., a distinguished former Justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal. It is awarded annually to support “an original analysis of innovative ways to improve the insolvency system, a historical analysis of particular features of the system or an exploration of any other insolvency-related idea.” Authors from any part of the insolvency community – practicing trustees and lawyers, as well as academics and students – are eligible to apply.

2015 Research Paper

We are pleased to announce that the 9th Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship paper is now available.

The 9th Annual Lloyd Houlden Fellowship was awarded to Professor Poonam Puri of Osgoode Hall Law School, York University.

Professor Puri has held visiting appointments at the National University of Singapore Law School, the University of Western Ontario, the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and Cornell Law School, where she was also a Fulbright Scholar. She has also given numerous lectures and speeches about corporate governance and financial regulation, among other topics.

Her research paper is entitled Beyond Director Liability for Environmental Remediation. It considers the issues surrounding personal liability on the directors and officers of insolvent corporations for environmental remediation costs in light of the Ontario Ministry of the Environment’s recent 2013 decision in the Northstar Aerospace insolvency. Her paper provides an analysis of theoretical arguments regarding the interface of bankruptcy law, corporate governance in the pre-insolvency context and regulatory liability with a view to reconceptualizing the relationship among these areas of law.

2013 Research Paper

Dr. Thomas Telfer is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at Western University in London, Ontario. Earlier in his career, he was a Lecturer and Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Law at the University of Auckland in New Zealand. He has held visiting appointments at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, Osgoode Hall Law School, Victoria University of Wellington, the University of Toronto and the University of Adelaide. He has co-authored several books and published numerous articles in the area of bankruptcy and insolvency.

Dr. Telfer’s research paper considers the problem of multiple consumer bankruptcies. He examines whether there are any common causes of repeat consumer bankruptcies; whether the mandatory counselling provisions are working in light of the increasing number of repeat filings and whether changes need to be made to the counselling program. In addition, his paper evaluates whether or not the new automatic discharge for second-time bankrupts is an effective policy tool and whether Parliament should adopt legislation to deal with the problem of third and fourth-time bankrupts.

This paper has been accepted for publication in the Canadian Business Law Journal and is forthcoming in 2014

2012 Research Papers

M. Gordon Hunter is Professor of Information Systems in the Faculty of Management at The University of Lethbridge, Alberta, Canada. His research paper identifies issues surrounding the insolvency process related to small businesses. Each year 139,000 new businesses are formed in Canada, with about 30% failing within one year, and with only 25% still in operation after 9 years.

Nick E. Milanovic holds a Master of Laws degree from the University of Toronto. He was called to the Bar in the Province of Ontario in 1996. Prior to joining the Faculty at Carleton University, Nick practiced labour law in Canada for approximately a decade. Professor Milanovic’s paper looks at the impact of Parliament’s having added section 65.12 of the BIA and section 33 of the CCAA in 2008, which specified that the full force of the collective agreement remained in effect during an insolvency proceeding.

2011 Research Paper

Dr. Janis Sarra is a Professor of Law at the University of British Columbia teaching corporate finance, commercial insolvency law, corporate law, securities law, contract law and law and economics. She researches and writes in these and related fields and serves as Editor in Chief of the Annual Review of Insolvency Law. In January 2012, Dr. Sarra commenced as Director of the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC.

As part of the Honourable Lloyd Houlden Research Fellowship given by the Canadian Insolvency Foundation, Dr. Sarra held eleven public meetings across Canada in 2011 to discuss the extent to which we need to rethink or retool some of the underlying assumptions and practices of the current commercial insolvency law system.

2010 Research Paper

Helen Sevenoaks, a graduate student in the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia, the recipient of the Fellowship in 2010, has written a study entitled The Remedy of Substantive Consolidation under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act: A Closer Examination of Domestic and Cross-border Issues. Please click here

2008 Research Paper

Prof. Janis Sarra, Assistant Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of British Columbia, the recipient of the Fellowship in 2008, has written a study entitled Failure to Capture the Brass Ring: An Empirical Study of Business Bankruptcies and Proposals under the Canadian Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act. Please lick here

2007 Research Paper

Two legal scholars, Prof. Jacob Ziegel, Ph.D., LL.D., and Prof. Jassmine Girgis, LL.M., were the co-recipients of the 2nd Annual Lloyd Houlden Research Fellowship, sharing equally the $20,000 award in support of research on current issues in Canadian insolvency policy and practice.

2006 Research Papers

Two legal scholars, Kelly Bourassa, LL.B. and Shauna Towriss, LL.B., were the co-recipients of the first Annual Lloyd Houlden Research Fellowship, sharing equally the $20,000 award in support of research on current issues in Canadian insolvency policy and practice..

Ms. Bourassa examined the definition and treatment of eligible financial contracts under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). Ms. Towriss examined the position of shareholders and shareholder equity in a CCAA restructuring, using the Stelco court ruling as a case study. Their Working Papers can be downloaded below.